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Hokitika Guardian, 5 February 1932, Page 2

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ATTITUDE OF CHINA. PEACE: AND GOODWILL TOWARD MEN. CHRISTCHURCH, February 4. “We have permitted Japan to use our kitchen, our dining-room and our living-room. Are we to be reproached if we refuse her entrance to our bed-chamber?” asked Mr Wentworth Chan, who is closely in touch with the trend of affairs in China, in an interview yesterday. Mr Chan said that China was a stfrange country; indeed, it was one of the mystery places oi the world. People in New Zealand frequently heard many amazing stories from those who hac[ returned from China., but as these persons were more or less superficial observers, usually toura>s or students whose experience had been confined to the treaty ports, few knew, as one writer aptly put it, “what is in the heart of a Chinese.” Because people saw the familiar “poker” face, and the bland smile, it was assumed that the “heathen Chinese” were an insusceptible and unfeeling rac-'. This was not true. They were not impartial to sorrow and humiliation, nor were they a race of cowards. They had suffered because it was taught them to respect their fellows a n d, above all, to extend that peace and goodwill towards men, us Confucius and other of their prophets and sagas had taught them down the long vista of the years from the days of the Emperor T’sui. centuries before the coming of Christ. To-day they still upheld this teaching and had endured himilin t ion such as no other nation had suffered throughout History. Notwithstanding their suffering they respected and deligbod in upholding their traditions, and no-matter what, the world thought of them, they would not fight unless it was positively the last resoui c-e.

INTERNAL DISSENSION. ft was true that China had had its internal civil wars, continued Mr Wentworth Chan, but what republic had not? Which nation had suffered so much cruel tyranny and (inhuman imposition as China under the Munchll dynasty? China had changed since the inauguration of the new regime, and the order of slums, panics and depressions was slowly passing away, and everywhere individuals were ceasing to pay heavy royalties and political' tribute to the cential power at Pekin. The course of events was towards that self-determination

of individual lives, independence and' local home rule which the founders of the republic established when they deviated from the old regime, which had been turned, by -the inhuman tyranny of the Manchu dynasty into a centralised, despotically-ruled empire. The new authority was now changing this old order into a decentralised, self-reliant, provincially governer nation. The modern tendency called for liberty, freedom and the closer association of Government and people. No other system could cope with the modern conditions rn evidence in every province' of China to-day. The new regime meant a return to wealth and independence, and opportunity waited at every crossroad for the wealthy, cultured and

ignorant alike. But this did not suit China’s neighbour, Japan, who had a greedy eye upon Manchuria, and as China possessed, as did many other nations, “grafters” who willingly worshipped mammon rather than patriotism, there were civil wars. ButChina was rapidly awakening, and in her wakening she was conscious of the treacheries of her generals and the aims of her neighbour, who had financed and instigated the civil disturbances of the north and south. Japan, of course, did not favour this, and as her most pre-eminent ambitions threatened not to materialise, she had resorted to force.